How could we not post this picture on our girl's favorite day?
Speaking of our girl, calm yourselves, chitlins. We'll be writing about our visit with her starting tomorrow. In the mean time, check out her blog entries on OUTZone and Bravo's Fashion Forward here and here. A (characteristically) juicy bit:
"So I myself became frightened when I saw that this was something that would be investigated and that it was possible that Jeffrey wouldn’t be showing a Bryant Park. It was always my intention to compete on the Runway, not in some accountant’s office. So when they did look at his receipts, and the one garment didn’t have the receipt, and he pulled the garment from his collection, I was happy with the results. Because the situation was over. And he would be showing and so I was relieved. But I don’t apologize for bringing it up. I wasn’t the only one thinking it. I didn’t drag anyone into it. I thought carefully about it."
We'll be wrapping up our thoughts on the collections today and tomorrow we'll be talking about the judges. Don't forget that on Thursday, we start blogging season one.
Also, Project: Gay launches tomorrow with a very special tribute to a lady that the gays all love and admire (plus we want to try on her jewelry). Who is this gal? You'll never guess.
44 comments:
Four skeletons in the "Stop in the Name of Love" pose hanging above me in the kitchen. THAT'S how I wanna live! Laura, we love ya!
How did I just know that Halloween would be her favorite holiday and not something like Christmas or Eater??
I just positively LOVE Laura... and I want to be like her when I grow up (minus about 5 of the kids)
""So when they did look at his receipts, and the one garment didn’t have the receipt, and he pulled the garment from his collection, I was happy with the results. Because the situation was over. And he would be showing and so I was relieved.""
What a load of crap.
The disconnect here astounds me. The original accusation was that Jeffrey did not sew his collection, because Laura believed he was unable to attain the level of craftmanship shown in his collection. This is a separate issue from Receiptgate.
Her original accusations were found to be baseless, so she latched on to the receipt issue to avoid making a complete fool of herself.
Spin, spin, spin. How disappointing.
How is that spin? She raised a question which led to an investigation. The investigation revealed that he outsourced a garment without providing a receipt. Sounds to me like she was absolutely right.
Fabulous, guys. I might ask Laura a question. : - )
Happy Halloween, darlings! I LOVE that chandelier picture.
No you didn't T&L.
We have to wait for another day for Project Gay. I will not be able to get any work done today!
But all is forgiven. skeleton chandelier is precious.
goprg
It is both Sewgate and Receiptgate but not Lycheegate. Thank goodness.
""How is that spin?""
Because she wasn't accusing him of not having receipts for work allowed by the rules, but rather was accusing him of having someone else sew his collection in ways not allowed by the rules. She had questioned the sewing on the leather jeans, the seam finishes, etc.
She accused him of being like an athlete on steroids, and admitted that she considered that he had access to workers through his business. If she thought his workmen had sewed the collection, a review of the receipts wouldn't solve that issue.
Yeah, spin.
Dora: HE OUTSOURCED A GARMENT AND HAD NO RECEIPT FOR IT. Not to mention, even without the receipt he was already significantly over budget. WHy do you keep ignoring that?
I, on the other hand, still do believe he didn't sew all of his collection.
Receipts? Who would write receipts for "outsourcing" work to his own sewing crew?
I know its been said before but it bears repeating -- would Whitney keep receipts of transactions with her crack dealer? She challenged the rumors in an interview with Diane Sawyer by asking to see the receipts. Same difference.
It will never be proven -- one way or the other.
""Dora: HE OUTSOURCED A GARMENT AND HAD NO RECEIPT FOR IT. Not to mention, even without the receipt he was already significantly over budget. WHy do you keep ignoring that?""
I wasn't ignoring it. I was pointing out that there are two separate issues. Missing receipts for work within the guidelines and over-budget issues v. wholesale use of Jeffrey's workmen to sew most of all of his collection. The missing "pleating" receipt doesn't answer Laura's original accusations.
I don't think Iraq and the war on terror are related, either.
This is supposed to be a light-hearted Halloween fun thread, so I'll bow out of this already beaten to death issue.
Happy Halloween.
Thanks for the reminder about the next blogging session, T&L! I just placed my order for Season One PR through your website.
Happy Halloween!
Lycheegate? Someone's been watching Top Chef.
What's my gal Laura dressing as for Halloween? Will she put tats on her neck and be Jeffrey? How about a blonde wig and dressing as Heidi?
I would have loved to dress up as Laura today (baby belly and all in white tights and a short black dress), but I was afraid that Laura drag would not go over well at my semi-conservative office.
T&L - are you guys dressing? We want pictures!!
That Herself and I share the same favorite holiday only endears her more to me!
That skeletondelier is crazy fun!!!
Love, love, love the chandelier! Laura has a delicious sense of humor, doesn't she? My Season 1 DVDs arrived on Saturday so I am all set for tomorrow night.
I tell you, Bravo is coming in here and plagarising our catchy words and phrases. The fabulosity meter is red HAWT.
What are they going to do next on PR? Have twins named Tom and Lorenzo?
HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS!!!!!!!
Desarae
I gave birth to a mini Laura only blonde and blue-eyed! The kid (what I usually call her even to her face, yes, I'm saving for her therapy!) has been planning her halloween costume since June. She is also ripped that I won't decorate the house. It is fa a away her favorite holiday even over her birthday. She is such a diva in training! can't wait for Project: Gay already have it on my blog!
To Dora said...
Suspicious level of craftmanship = did not sew it yourself = outsource = no receipt for outsource = rule broken. Laura was right.
Oh my yessss! Let's do snark on the judges. I do fear howsomever that blog will turn serious ugly.
-Rewarding a sheet designer rather than innovators using chandeliers and coffee filters
-Keeping Vincent too long
-Aufing Alison too early
-Keeping Jeffrey despite Darlene's serious ugly dress
-Keeping 4 finalist rather than 3
-Keeping Vincent way too long
-Judging what Laura wore rather than her challenge product
-Labelling Robert as boring when Angela's stuff was ugly
-Keeping Vincent despite his inability to defend his crappy designs
-Equating strange and odd as fashion forward design
-Failing to warn Michael after seeing his hooker gown on the last challenge
-Dismissing the women in Laura and Uli's markets as too old or too narrow when they have money Jeffrey's market won't have for another 15-20 years.
-Dressing themselves boringly, inappropriately young and fashion stagnant
----------------------------
=It's THE JUDGES FAULT.
I have some tomatoes, a box of rawks and a full litter box.
OH YEAH! BRING IT ON.
bill,
Laura said on NPR this year that shes taking the year off due to the fact that shes SO pregnant (that and she hasnt rested for five minutes since like...May)
I can't listen to Laura's NPR thing on my friggin' Mac. Goddamnit. I need to hear that woman talk again -- it has been way too long.
Eerrh Mike?
R U Special Agent Blavo?
I love Laura. She is a camera hog. She has the bestest soundbites!
Bill,
Laura in a black dress and white tights? That sounds more like Alison!
Mike honey, ditto would have sufficed. Are you feeling okay? How about a nice little nap?
to anonymous who can't hear clip on mac:
do you have realOne player? you can download it on the NPR site (at least you could a while back, otherwise, google it).
when i click on the "listen" button, it tries to open it in quicktime. so, the thing to do is download the .smil file, then drag it from the finder to the realOne icon.
I still think it's a very bipolar-psycho way of Laura making up that Jeffrey cheated, then saying oh "I didn't mean no harm!" it's just a gut feeling!"what a crazy lady! A gut feeling is just that, and a serious objection like that should have been raised if she had something to prove it, not just from plain jealousy, like Jeffrey said on the interveiw, he did better than her so she had to do soemthing (wrong) about it...
I agree completely with Dora 10:10am ...
that other redhead said...
Oh my yessss! Let's do snark on the judges. I do fear howsomever that blog will turn serious ugly.
-Rewarding a sheet designer rather than innovators using chandeliers and coffee filters
-Keeping Vincent too long
-Aufing Alison too early
-Keeping Jeffrey despite Darlene's serious ugly dress
-Keeping 4 finalist rather than 3
-Keeping Vincent way too long
-Judging what Laura wore rather than her challenge product
-Labelling Robert as boring when Angela's stuff was ugly
-Keeping Vincent despite his inability to defend his crappy designs
-Equating strange and odd as fashion forward design
-Failing to warn Michael after seeing his hooker gown on the last challenge
-Dismissing the women in Laura and Uli's markets as too old or too narrow when they have money Jeffrey's market won't have for another 15-20 years.
-Dressing themselves boringly, inappropriately young and fashion stagnant
I add:
-Keeping Vincent too long
-Aufing Alison instead of Vincent in that recycling challenge
-Keeping Laura too long
-Keeping Angela too long
-Still bringing back Vincent and Angel {still it was worth seeing those 2 auf'd for the 2nd time}
Knowing that the PRboys are hopelessly entranced with Laura, I feel compelled to make the following comments in the interests of full and fair treatment, both regarding those Laura comments quoted by you and those in the link not selected to be quoted by you.
"I did try to make it clear that I did firmly believe that it was Jeffrey's design work." So what. That isn't the point. The point is that Laura accused Jeffrey of not executing those designs himself. The comment "You just don't pull craftsmanship like that out of your ass" was clearly targeting rules violation regarding execution, not rules violation regarding originality of design.
Now, when I did bring it up, I have to say I never thought it was anything that was provable or would warrant an investigation. It was a gut feeling and I felt that if I didn’t say it, then I wouldn’t ever have a chance to say it again. And because it was purely a gut feeling, I didn’t think it was anything that could or would be investigated."
Really! And when Tim was assuring Laura on the balcony that the producers would investigate these issues thoroughly, she thought that wasn't an "investigation" how, exactly?
Then why, exactly, did she felt compelled to mention this gut feeling at all? She saw what happened to Keith when he was accused of breaking the rules, and only a total idiot would not forsee the same possible result for Jeffrey. This behavior on her part was deliberate and rabidly competitive. If she honestly thought that her merely mentioning it to get it off her chest would be the end of it all, she demonstrated stunningly poor judgment.
I think she was afraid that the superior craftsmanship that she noted in Jeffrey's garments could beat her, and that this was a deliberate attempt by her to eliminate a competitor from the field or to get him publicly chastised in such a way as to negatively influence the judges. It was ill-considered, mean, and small of her.
Laura also commented that "And it’s funny because the whole season, he had been viewed by the public as this sort of mean-spirited, nasty commenting, sort of picking on fat women and farm girls -- and then suddenly it became, "Poor Jeffrey, how can Laura be so mean?"
This statement basically boils down to her belief that she could get away with trashing his business reputation because she thought nobody liked him anyway and would agree with her on that basis alone, e.g."He's a nasty guy so he MUST have cheated."
"So I myself became frightened when I saw that this was something that would be investigated and that it was possible that Jeffrey wouldn’t be showing a Bryant Park."
This is supposed to demonstrate some conscience after the fact? The filmed scenes give lie to this statement. The cameras didn't catch her saying "Oh God, what have I done?" They caught her unapologetically and unrepentantly saying she wasn't sorry for what she had said and that she wasn't going to apologize for having said it or take it back. She looked satisfied, not frightned, by what she had started.
"And in the end, he admitted outsourcing the one garment. There was fire where I saw smoke."
This is a deliberate attempt to twist the issue. The outsourcing that Jeffrey admitted to was clearly permitted by the rules, so there was no "fire" about him being in violation of the rules on that point at all. Laura's "smoke "on this issue was demonstrated to be all hot air on her part.
The "fire" that was discovered, going over budget and missing a receipt, was totally unanticipated, and I am pleased that the producers found a way to level the playing field for all to compete in the finale.
Laura's back-pedaling and excuses for her behavior are just a way to try to cover up and divert us from her stunning display of poor sportsmanship. Laura would have done better just to admit that it was ill-advised of her to trash another competitor's skill and craftsmanship when she didn't know a rat's poop about the quality of his professional work produced on a less hectic timefraome than the prior elimination challenges.
Face it, Laura butted her nose in where it didn't belong. And since she has chosen to brazen it out rather than to forthrightly apologize for her mistaken assumptions about Jeffrey's professional skills, she steps further into the doo-doo each time she speaks. Even Omorosa could have come up with better butt-covering than this.
fashion curmudgeon,
I would ask you to go to sparklies and look, very close up, at both Jeffery and Laura's clothes. You can look at just the OFW collection or the entire season. I guarantee that Laura was NEVER afraid of Jeffery's sewing skills. She can sew circles around anyone in this or any other season.
the other redhead...
I could not agree with you more.
sewhat? said...
"fashion curmudgeon,
I would ask you to go to sparklies and look, very close up, at both Jeffery and Laura's clothes. You can look at just the OFW collection or the entire season. I guarantee that Laura was NEVER afraid of Jeffery's sewing skills. She can sew circles around anyone in this or any other season."
The Fashion Curmudgeon replies:
You missed the entire point. Laura was not afraid of Jeffrey's sewing skills AS SHE KNEW THEM. The whole point is that she, along with Uli and Michael, did not think the superior craftsmanship on the leather pants in particular or the bias tape bound seams on several of the garments in Jeffrey's finale collection was even Jeffrey's doing. All three of them commented on how magnificent this craftsmanship was, and Laura started the ball rolling by suggesting it wasn't Jeffrey's work.
She started a stink because she set herself up as judge and jury regarding what Jeffrey was capable of, and expected others to go along with her conclusions.
There is no possible conclusion other than she was trying to make trouble for Jeffrey. Having seen what the accusation of cheating did to Keith, she was well aware of what an accusation of cheating could do to Jeffrey, if proven correct.
If she was so confident she would have won anyway, there would have been no reason for her to try and knife him in the back. Laura exibited extremely poor judgement out of, perhaps, lack of self confidence. She knew that her collection was extremely limited and hence, vulnerable on that point. She was counting on her own superior craftsmanship saving the day for herself.
It apparently came as a nasty surprise to her that there was some superior craftsmanship in another collection as well, particularly a collection that demonstrated far more range and innovation than did hers. In other words, she may have seen Jeffrey's collection as covering more bases that the judges would be concerned with than her own collection did. To win on craftsmanship, she had to be the only one doing it at such a high level. Imagine her unpleasant surprise (and naivete) at somebody else being that good as well.
Yes, she singled out the leather jeans in particular as something Jeffrey could not possibly have done, in her opinion. Yes, an experienced professional designer such as Jeffrey, with clothing in stores all over the world, could not possibly do leather jeans that well. How stupid, stupid, stupid of her to make those accusations without thinking it through more.
She did what she could to spike Jeffrey, plain and simple. And she chooses not to apologize for it, but rather to obfuscate and make elegantly worded excuses for her poor sportsmanship.
Many women admire Laura for being forthright and unafraid to express her opinions. I highly admire her for that quality, as well. But as to the CONTENT of those opinions, how unfortunate for her that her opinions this time were so ill-informed. How further unfortunate for her that she now chooses to brazen it out rather than just apologize for being a jerk.
My opinion of her goes down for this cowardly behavior.
Laura did the right thing. People with morals understand.
Anonymous said...
Laura did the right thing. People with morals understand.
9:39 PM
The Fashion Curmudgeon says:
I strongly disagree. "People with morals" would understand that you don't trash another person's professional reputation in reckless disregard of the facts.
Laura disregarded that Jeffrey was an experienced professional designer, and that she also had no personal knowledge of level of his craftsmanship when not under severe time constraints. Nor, most importantly, did she bother to even ask him for clarification before calling his professional reputation into question in front of third parties.
You may think that Laura "did the right thing." I, on the other hand, would consider it to be defamation.
oh YEA!!!! Project:Gay!!!!! CanNOT wait, grrrrlz . . .
Jeffrey is that you?
T&L I love the blog and I love that picture of the skelton chandelier. But, I'm kinda over the whole outsourcing. Whether it happened or not, it's over now.
Ditto Delphine Ditto
Wait just a minute here. On PR's Bonus Footage Video Aftermath of Keith being kicked out of the competition, here's what Jeffrey said about Keith Michael leaving PR:
"I think he did the right thing. I decided before I went to sleep that if they didn't get rid of him, then I was going to leave because IF...because even though I feel bad and there's all these mixed feelings about it, in my head, I just thought, you know what, any one of us if given the chance would want an edge up and if I tried to let this go and something happens and I make a mistake, maybe I make the wrong garment...I fuck up...I don't finish, and for whatever reason I get kicked off the show and I gotta watch him at Bryant Park, I'm gonna hate myself, and I'm gonna resent the fact that I didn't stand up for what I believe in."
Jeffrey continues:
"I did a lot of work in the 7 weeks before I got here to get here, you know, to prepare myself to be here, you know, because I hadn't sewn anything in 2 years because I've had other people doing it for me. Since I left school I hadn't really made a full complete pattern, just first patterns, like, I did a lot of studying and a lot of work getting up at 5:00 in the morning every day and working all day long on my business and on my own getting ready to be here even before I heard that I was going to be here, you know? Why would I do all that preparation, why would I do all that work...why would I do all that and then not make it to Bryant Park MAYBE because there was an extra person here that had an edge up on me because they brought some books in, you know what I mean?"
IMO, those are VERY interesting statements by Jeffrey, seeing now how things turned out. Let's see...Jeffrey said he hadn't sewn anything in 2 years prior to preparing himself for PR. In the 7 weeks he says he prepared himself before arriving in NYC for PR, his
sewing skills were only up to the level they were seen by everyone in the design and sewing rooms...and apparently Laura's opinion was shared by Uli and Michael. What would anybody think after hearing him say he had to brush up on his skills and then observe the outcome of those skills in the design room? Could his skills have improved that much when he went back to California to create his 12 designs? Sure they could, but taking into consideration that Jeffrey told everyone in NY that in addition to the challenge, he was also working on his own business as well, it isn't a great stretch to think that it was odd that he could have all that work to do and still put out exceptional sewing and finishing on his PR collection. That's working in a time crunch similar to the time crunch that they all dealt with in NY. It would have been easier for me to believe Jeffrey if he hadn't said that he was also working on his own design line for his business. I actually think that Jeffrey had somebody on his payroll do a lot of the regular construction of his 12 designs and he did the finishing work in order to be as completely done as he was in the 2 month time frame in addition to working on his own business line. I don't think he was Superman...that is, faster than a speeding bullet.
Also, how was Jeffrey's comment about Keith,
"...because even though I feel bad and there's all these mixed feelings about it, in my head, I just thought, you know what, any one of us if given the chance would want an edge up and if I tried to let this go and something happens and I make a mistake, maybe I
make the wrong garment...I fuck up...I don't finish, and for whatever reason I get kicked off the show and I gotta watch him at Bryant Park, I'm gonna hate myself, and I'm gonna resent the fact that I didn't stand up for what I believe in...."
any different from Laura's comments about Jeffrey? Jeffrey in fact, did have an edge up...he had a working business with machines that none of the others had (e.g. like
special machines to sew leather). Even if he did all his own sewing, I doubt he took money out of his $8,000 allotment and accounted for the use of those machines as if he had rented them (Tim Gunn had said that if the others needed special machines, they could have rented them). Laura's comment "he's like an athlete on steroids..." was right on point. Jeffrey was already over budget, and if he had to add in the going rate for renting specialty machines, he probably couldn't have competed at Bryant Park because of accounting problems.
Jeffrey had his doubts about Keith and expressed them on camera for all to see and hear. Laura had doubts about Jeffrey and did the same. It was up to the producers what they were going to do with the information...just listen to the complaints or to act on what they heard. They chose to act. Neither Laura or Jeffrey should be beaten up on blogs because they expressed their opinions on another designer. They both had good reason to do what they did.
What a delicious joke: Hanging the Dance Macabre above your kitchen table. No wonder I totally adore this woman.
Sharon:
I wish you could have posted this a LOOOOONG time ago. You are exactly correct. If this had been posted sooner, maybe we could have been saved from all the sermonizing by the fans of the winner. He won for heaven's sake...be happy and move on.
In response to Sharon's lengthy post:
The two situations are not at all the same.
The men actually DID see the self-help books in Keith's room. They were then filmed discussing the rules and these self-help books, and the filming showed their consternation and dismay about continuing the competition with a cheater in their midst and who had the courage to step up and rat on Keith.
In contrast, Laura did know the rules, but DID NOT witness Jeffrey breaking them. She was filmed drawing the unsubstantiated conclusion that Jeffrey did not do some of the work on his garments, and repeating that view to others without even first asking him to verify the accuracy of her conclusion. While Jeffrey was IN THE ROOM and available to set her straight, she instead went out on the balcony with Tim, where Jeffrey could not hear her, and leveled her charges at Jeffrey.
Apples and oranges.
Laura and Jeffrey discussed the whole subject about Laura questioning Jeffrey's integrity (it can be seen on the Bonus Footage at PR) and they came to terms with each other. That should be enough for everyone. They were the principals involved. If they're okay with it, everyone else should be.
End of story. :)
Carry On!
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